Global Frontier Tech Program - Grad San Diego Regular

Research Scientist Graduate (Multimedia Standards) - Global Frontier Tech Recruitment Program - 2027 Start (PhD) About the Team

At Multimedia Lab, we push the boundaries of what’s possible in multimedia technology. Our mission is to pioneer cutting‑edge research across image and video understanding, generation, processing, compression, and transmission—and transform these innovations into real‑world products that delight hundreds of millions of users globally.

Multimodal Foundation Models for Intelligent Multimedia Processing. Explore next‑generation multimedia technologies powered by multimodal foundation models, including perceptual quality modeling, generative enhancement, temporal video understanding, user‑centric evaluation, and intelligent visual representation/compression, to advance video quality, efficiency, and user experience in future multimedia systems.

• Achieving much higher compression efficiency than current encoders
• Keeping complexity and power use within acceptable limits
• Ensuring encoding and decoding work smoothly across different platforms
• Efficiently compressing new types of smart data such as tokens
• Effectively representing semantic information

• Traditional video coding is reaching its limit. Smart video coding can go beyond these limits and achieve much better video compression.
• New types of smart data, like tokens, will use more bandwidth in future applications.
• If smart video coding and representation become a standard, they will quickly gain market share and have big potential for valuable patents.
• Efficient smart video coding and representation can save a lot of bandwidth and storage, directly creating financial gains.

• Design, develop, implement, and optimize creative algorithms for image/video compression in formats such as 2D video, multiview video, 360‑degree video, point cloud, light field, etc.
• Design, develop and implement novel algorithms for file formats, system and transport protocols.
• Research and develop image/video processing and objective metrics for subjective quality evaluations.
• Actively participate in related standardization forums: MPEG, DASH, 3
  
  GPP, JVET, AVS.
• Follow up on state‑of‑the‑art algorithms in standardization work and conference/journal papers.
• Draft standard contributions, patent applications and academic papers.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Individuals who are completing or recently completed a PhD in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Strong computer science fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, software design) and problem‑solving skills.
• Published papers in academic conferences or journals in the subject.
• Rich experience and interest in multimedia standards (e.g., for image/video compression, file format, system, transport).
• Familiar with C/C++.
• Good team spirit and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Good understanding of the state‑of‑the‑art compression/transmission algorithms.
• Experience on JVET reference software or AVS reference software.
• Experience in the development of video coding standards.
• Experience in patent applications.
• Familiar with neural network‑based image/video coding and processing.
• Familiar with Python, PyTorch.

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $232,560 – $558,600 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the total package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day‑one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short‑term and long‑term disability coverage, life insurance, well‑being benefits, among others. Employees…